State Checkoff Program Receives Unprecedented Support

When the votes were counted, the Maryland Grain Checkoff Program referendum passed with an unprecedented margin of 95%. While voter turn out was lower than the 2001 vote, the margin in favor of the program increased by 10%. Eligible voters are those financially engaged in the growing of grain as a landowner, tenant, or sharecropper.Under state law, a referendum is required every five years to reaffirm support for the checkoff program. The vote was held in County Extension Offices on Friday, July 28, or by previous absentee ballot, with the official counting of the two-hundred and sixty-four votes taking place on Aug. 1st at the quarterly meeting of the Maryland Grain Producers Association. “We are very pleased that Maryland’s grain producers are in such strong support of the Checkoff Program,” stated Ed Stanfield, president of the Maryland Grain Producers Association and a grain farmer from Baltimore County. “Projects funded through the checkoff program expand uses of grain and improve the market for our state’s grain industry. Farmers recognize the importance of this program and how it improves the profitability on their farm.” The mandatory checkoff states that a farmer must pay an assessment of one half of one percent (.5%) to be collected on the net value of each bushel of grain sold. The checkoff will be deducted at the first point of sale on all grain, with the exception of soybeans, which is already under a national checkoff program. Any producer who does not wish to participate in the program can get a full or partial refund upon written request.The checkoff program is administered by the Maryland Grain Producers Utilitzation Board, a twenty-member board board representing grain producers from six regions throughout the state. Funding is used for education, research and market development. The fifteen-year-old Maryland Grain Checkoff Program will now continue for another five years beginning October 1, 2006.